Rotate shapes, connectors and connector labels

draw.io 28 Oct 2020

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Shapes are placed on the drawing canvas in draw.io using a default orientation. You can rotate shapes into another position as you need.

  1. Select a shape and you’ll see the rotate grab handle appear - a small circular arrow above the top right corner of the shape.
    Rotate a shape using the rotate grab handle
  2. Click on and drag the rotate symbol around to rotate your shape to a new angle.

Alternatively, you can enter an exact angle, rotate the shape by 90 degrees on the Arrange tab in the format panel on the right.

Non-symmetrical shapes can also be flipped horizontally or vertically via the Arrange tab.

Rotate a shape using the rotate grab handle, or via the options in the Arrange tab on the format panel

Rotate multiple shapes

You can rotate multiple shapes if you group them together.

  1. Select multiple shapes by holding down Shift then clicking on each shape you want to rotate.
  2. Click on Group on the Arrange tab in the format panel, or right click and select Group from the context menu, or press Ctrl+G to form a group. A selection box will surround your selected shapes and the rotate grab handle will appear.
    Rotate a shape using the rotate grab handle
  3. Rotate your group as you would a single shape - click on the rotate symbol and drag the group to a new angle.

Rotate multiple shapes as a group

Rotate the connector label text

Select the label on a connector, and use the rotate grab handle to rotate the text.

Rotate a connector's label text

Tip: In some shapes, you can change the writing direction of the labels from horizontal to vertical.

Rotate a connector

Connectors work differently to shapes in that they are defined by a path that goes through waypoints. They don’t have a rotate grab handle, so you would typically drag the ends and waypoints to follow a different path when you want to ‘rotate’ the connector.

See how to add waypoints to change the path of a connector.

You can, however, flip a selected connector horizontally and vertically via the Arrange tab of the format panel.
Flip a connector horizontally or vertically via the Arrange tab of the format panel

And you can reverse a selected connector via the Arrange tab of the format panel. The arrows and the labels at either end of a connector will be swapped, but the path the connector takes and its waypoints will not be changed.
Reverse a connector via the Arrange tab of the format panel

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